Very interesting and I would have never thought about the impact of having so many grandparents and parents with quartz watches. GS needs to hire you as a brand ambassador and historian, ha. Wow, thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful reply - I enjoyed the heck out of that. They keep perfect time, likely never need a service, have some of the best finishing on the market, and are pretty affordable, so add in the nostalgia and tradition, and it makes sense. GS nowadays offers more quartz watches than any other type from what I've seen in catalogues and stores. (Seiko made the first quartz recreational and professional dive watches in the 70s-80s too, and James Bond wore several quartz Seikos, including the first quartz Golden Tuna diver in '81. Now we're at a stage where in Japan most everyone's parents and even grandparents likely had a quartz watch, and probably a good one - possibly still running and keeping great time like the pieces in this test - and so there's a huge traditional market for them over there.

Quartz watches were really expensive through the 1970s (the Superior in this test was the most expensive Seiko of the decade, Grand Seikos included) and quite the status symbol, even when mass produced. Grand Seiko returned in 1988 but only with quartz movements till 1998. All this gives an accuracy of ten seconds per year. The Grand Seiko and King Seiko mechanical watches, which started in the early 1960s, had by the mid 1970s become Grand Quartz and King Quartz, and their industry-leading, Swiss-beating mechanical movements were discontinued. The Watch Magazine takes a closer look at the Grand Seiko SBGM023J, Grand Seiko SBGA073J and the. Mass production followed in the next few years, and the Japanese consumer adopted it with enthusiasm, as they did all homegrown modern tech. Well although the Japanese didn't invent quartz watch/clock technology, Seiko perfected it and brought the first quartz watch, the Astron, to market in 1969. Something I forgot - the comment about quartz GS being popular in Japan - that's interesting, I've never heard that.

Seiko 9f accurate 5 seconds oer year